New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-11-27

dencc. and its effect upon French fiction has for
much more than n century been disastrous
Outside of fiction the literature of France
/ ahounds with noble works Yet even here the god
dcss Lubricty. IA Matthew Arnold puts II. has her
share Of homage. A Montcsqulcu could write MS
"Lettres Persanes" -; a Didorot could descend to
the gutter for recreation; Ren.n can relieve the
gravity f ms researches into ancient religions by
composing "LAbbesse Jouarre." Balzac, and after
him Victor Hugo raised the standard OF fiction. hut
in both eases II fell again. and il may be seriously
doubted whether Il mas ever been lover than 1t ~
to-day.
For 10 the ancient md medieval sensua'y
which in It's more archaic form parfook somewhat
of the frank animalism of Grecian mythology
wh'cl was Genial if coarse, and not unnatural -
there has succeeded a spirit Of cynic pe>siml'm
winch gives a distinctly diabolc flavor 10 TINS
national defect The modern psychoiogic novelist
believes in nothing but the persistence of Evil
Their = neither faith nor vlriue IN man OF woman
for HIM Everything il for the worst in the worst
possible world. The heavens are brass and TIE
earth iron What the old prot cate Jean de- Meunc
. wrote about women in the fourteenth century is
repro iuccA. only in more polished FORM nj the
c'o-c Of the nineteenth. IL is the ctdo OF the
French romancer, whether ps, chO.O-lsi or rrailS'
/ Aud what y the goal to which all this tends !
There Is no thought of higher lie. There Is no
feeling aftcc spiritual development. The concep-
ton of severe suffering experienced on the ie-hy
plane never suggests the ascent Of the sou! 10
lofier emincncc and purer atmosphere The
only use of suffering. of dl>lllns'orln'ni, winch
occurs - these analysts of appetite Is that which
Claude in Nuson5cs indicates oproDos Of Rene
"When' saws this astutc friend. he writes
now upon love- upOl jealousy upon
w0mans treachcry, there will be
hide of his own blood in his sentences; OF red
blood which has tnrobbed in an artery, and not
merely OF INK taken from the inkStand of other
people, And this promises he thinks one fine
page the more TO add TO the literary patrimony of
France"
There il is: the possim.t spirit of the time. The
sufferer VINO suryivcs-what can n do with his oX-
pcriencc but describe the more bitterly. cynIcally
and clearly all the corrGptlons ne has passed
through al the iniames of which he has been
both pqrtakcr and victim. SGy.ly TINS Is y iitera-
tnre alike depressing and dcmor3lizng; hicra-
tire in which false psychology masqucradeo III
company with false morals and false art llt"ra-
turc uufathiul to the foundation principles 81 art,
in fact, since il turns its back at once upon the
beautiful and the true. And how spacious ana
noble field IS here neglected for The cult Of cor
ruption The place of woman III modern French
fiction is Illuminating She Is posed a the Liilih
Of Hebrew legend a scductrc,, of youth. whose
charms are fatal to her victims; hcartle,,
coquctte. destitute alike of con-c.rnre and ruth.
Il l. tins fatal creature VINO keeps the c'ntrc Of
the stage IA the popular romlDces. We know her
81, the Narnoii, here. as Saph, there, as Madame
de Aloraine, in her latest .,yatar. But however
many Acr rrincarnat.ons may Dee h,r nature never
changes one ioa for the better nor are her disln-
gushing vice, less olensiyc'y paradcd
Yct human love may be "a treated as to become
as cnnobiiug as religion. As Icnny>on's Arthur
puts it
"Fol indeed know
OF m moro subtle master under heaven
Than = me maiden passion for maid.
Not only to keep down the base IN man.
But teach hi:h Thought ant amlhlo words.
Ana cour,liuess and the desire % fame.
And love OF truth and nll that makes = man"
How the III Jught 1eie carries ono a. 1t were into
another world-a world l.; whose pura ether tho
modern French novelist could not breathe; yet u -
certain that If French literature 10 escape hop
les, 3ecadrnce. French men If letters must seek
!ofticr idea - p,rer STANDARD. - present thc .ic
ton Of the country is proceeding from blI 10
worse fol- the failure of the reaction against Xoll>m
70 accompl ,h anything better than travo,ty of
psychoog cal analysis, taintcl VITA all the worst
vices of The realistic school, inlIcatcs 50 grave a
condition OF literary etblc- that unless curative
impulse be applied. from some source not yet lndi-
ca ed. the utter degradation OF French fiction
must result